Westfield State College (also known as "Westate"
[pronounced wes-t-ate] or simply "Westfield") is a comprehensive,
coeducational, four-year public college.
It is the most
residential of the Massachusetts state colleges and is located
about 20 minutes from Springfield
, at 577 Western Avenue, in Westfield
, Massachusetts
. The college is most recognized for its
Criminal Justice and Education
Programs. More state troopers have graduated from Westfield State
College than from any other school in the state. It is also the
second largest producer of new teachers among the Massachusetts
state colleges. The school's mascot is an owl named "Nestor" and
its colours blue and white. There is also an elementary school
located on campus, Juniper Park Elementary School, which helps
elementary education majors to get out into the field and get
practice with teaching kids.
Location and Campus
Westfield State College is located in a rural neighborhood along
Western Avenue. It is about a five minute drive from downtown and
is accessible via the
P.V.T.A. bus system, which
is free to the on-campus residents. The campus is split up into
four sections, North Campus, East Campus, Main Campus and South
Campus. Across from East Campus is the 275 acre
Stanley Park, which is often used
by the students during the spring and fall seasons.
Campus
Main Campus
The main campus is where the majority of the buildings and
facilities are. When people refer to Westfield State College's
campus, they're referring to the main campus. It is known for its
centralized green and lack of roadways, which make it a very cozy,
walkable and attractive campus. It has all of the 9 residential
halls, 3 academic buildings, one dining hall, the campus center and
the library. There is also a power plant, maintenance building,
public safety building and a religious center located on the
campus. Everything is centered around the green with residential
buildings, campus center/library, dining hall and academic
buildings surrounding it. It is not uncommon to see intramural
sports and recreational activities happening on the green.
A campus map can be found here:
http://www.wsc.mass.edu/About_WSC/Campus_Map/Campus_Map.html
East Campus
Separated from the main campus because of Overlook Drive and Second
Congregational Church, is East Campus. On this part of campus is
all the athletic facilities as well as the administrative
building.. It has the Woodward Center (the athletic building), The
Horace Mann Center (the administrative building), as well as all
the athletic fields like the main field, two baseball fields and a
couple of practice fields.
South Campus
South campus is where the main parking lot is located. No buildings
or facilities are locate at this part of campus and it is just used
for student parking.
North Campus
North campus is not used at all due to wetlands and poor conditions
for building. It is about half the size of the main campus and is
all trees and vegetation. There is a proposed road and parking lot
connecting campus to
Route 20
through the north campus although nothing has been set in
stone.
Distances
Addresses
Its full mailing address is:P.O. Box 1630Westfield, Massachusetts
01086-1630
Its street address is:577 Western AvenueWestfield, Massachusetts
01086-1630
History
Foundation and Early Years
Westfield
State College was founded in 1838 in Barre,
Massachusetts
as a normal school by
Horace Mann. Westfield State College was the first
coeducational, public, normal school in the United States.
After an
increase in popularity and with limited resources, the Board of Education decided to move the
school from its present location in Barre to Westfield in 1844. Then in the 1930s, the Normal
School became a State Teachers College. At this point, it offered a
four-year education program with the aim being a bachelor of
science in education. The school soon faced a threat of being
closed though. There was a proposal that was aimed to close public
teachers colleges but with much uproar and advocate support, this
proposal was deflected. At this point, the college moved from its
one building in downtown Westfield to its current campus on Western
Avenue. The campus was dedicated to the school in 1956 and soon
after imposing more programs, enrollment skyrocketed.
The Later Years
Since the 1970’s, the school has expanded its program to include
criminal justice,
communication,
regional planning,
political science,
chemistry,
theatre
arts, and other programs.
Facilities and Buildings
Residential Halls
Dormitory Halls
Dickinson Hall
Also known as "The Dick", Dickinson hall is one of the oldest
residential halls on campus. It has an identical floor plan and
architecture to Davis Hall, just in a different location, so it is
commonly referred to as a "twin" to Davis Hall.. It shares a
spacious courtyard with the apartment complex which has grills,
benches and other amenities. The building itself is set up in
towers and is separated by sex by floor with clusters of 8-10 rooms
sharing a bathroom. There are primarily single rooms and double
rooms with a few triple rooms. There are 6 towers in all, A-F, with
four floors. It has a newly renovated common room with a full
kitchen, flat-panel television, piano, ping pong table, pool table,
couches, tables and such.
Courtney Hall
Courtney Hall is the newest of the dormitory halls, built in 1989,
and the largest. It holds around 500 students and has double,
triple, and quadruple rooms. It is set up in hallway style with a
common room on each level. In each common room there are vending
machines as well as a flat panel television. It has four floors of
living and a fifth floor that is a dedicated study lounge.The first
floor lounge has a full kitchen, fireplace, dining room, pool
table, couches, tables et cetera. It is coed with separate sex
bathrooms.
Davis Hall
Davis Hall is an identical hall with Dickinson Hall. It is on the
opposite side of campus but has the same floor plan and rooming
situations. There is a basketball court right outside of Davis Hall
and it shares a brand new courtyard with New Residence Hall.
Starting in the fall semester of 2009, it became a freshman hall
only to encourage growth within the freshman class and comrodery
between residents.
Lammers Hall
Lammers Hall is located right on the green near Ely Hall. The rooms
are arranged in a loop type hallway format with 12-14 rooms sharing
a bathroom. A positive aspect of Lammers Hall is the convenient
kitchen located in each section. Along with this, there is a lounge
in each section and a nice lobby with a pool table, big screen
television, foosball table and public washrooms. It is coed with
separate sex bathrooms. Also located in Lammers Hall is the
Counseling Center, which provides psychological and substance abuse
counseling to students; and the office of Career Services which
provides career planning assistance to students, faculty, and
staff.
Scanlon Hall
Scanlon Hall is the oldest of the dormitory halls and is located at
the entrance of the main campus. It was one of the three original
buildings on the current campus (along with Parenzo Hall and the
original power plant.) It is set up in hallway format with
primarily triple rooms. It is coed with separate sex bathrooms.
Along with the residential portion of the hall, Health Services as
well as Residential Life are located in the hall in wings that were
originally dorm rooms, but converted into office. Has the largest
doubles out of all the dorms. Doubles can only be found in the
Annex section. The basement of the building contains a student
study area nicknamed the "morgue" in the annex, and a student game
rooom and laundry room in the east part of the building. Also in
the basement is the office and break area for the college's trades
staff as well as some of the trades workshops. In the summer of
2007 an extensive renovation added a new stairwell and elevator to
the front of the building making it fully handicap accessible. Also
as part of this the lobby was completely renovated and new lounges
were made on the second and third floors of the building.
Apartment Halls
New Residence Hall
New Residence Hall, also known primarily as "New Apartments" or
"New Hall", is the newest of the residential buildings, built in
2005, and houses upperclassmen. It is apartment style living with
fully furnished apartments. The apartments are available in 4 or 6
person co-ed apartments (although in each room, it is same-sex.) It
is the only residential hall with air conditioning and has a full
kitchen, living room and two bathrooms. There are also classrooms
and offices located in New Hall along the first floor as well as a
Dunkin Donuts eatery.
The Apartment Complex
There are three identical halls in the apartment complex also known
as "Old Apartments"...
- Conlin Hall
- Seymour Hall
- Welch Hall
These three halls are true apartment style housing, with nothing
but apartments. Unlike New Hall, the apartment complex does not
have laundry facilities, game rooms, study rooms, lounges, et
cetera. It is strictly apartments although all the amenities are
located in Dickinson Hall right next door. Each apartment has a
full kitchen, living room, two single and two double bedrooms.
Along with this, each apartment has 1.5 bathrooms. Like New Hall,
the apartment halls are only for upperclassmen.
Academic Buildings
Bates Hall
Bates Hall is exclusively an academic building and the second
oldest academic building on campus. The building is home to most of
the humanities academic departments. Its three floors (Basement,
first, and second floors) contain a mix of classrooms and offices
for faculty of the various academic departments located in the
building. The basement contains two PC computer labs and a third PC
lab used by the department of geography and regional planning. The
first floor is home to the English, History, Geography and Regional
Planning, World Languages, and Ethnic and Gender studies
departments. The music department's main practice room is located
on this floor also. The second floor is home to the Music
department.
Ely Hall
Ely Hall, pronounced ee-lee, is the home of the Ely Library, Campus
Center, TV Studio, Radio Station and classrooms. The building is
home to a variety of campus services and amenities. It was
constructed in the 1970s and has 3 elevators.
The northern two story part of the building serves is the campus
center. It contains a large lounge area on the first floor with a
Subway restaurant as well as a Jazzman's Café, a coffee shop. In
addition there is an information desk and a service window that
sells various items such as tickets to college events. There is
also a CyberCafe with about 10 computers in the main lounge. The
second floor contains the English department's theatre program
including the studio theater where several performances throughout
the year are performed. Larger performances are held in Dever
Auditorium in Parenzo hall. Also on the second floor are the
offices of the student affairs division and several regular
classrooms. The basement of the campus center contains the wellness
center, the main public fitness center on campus. It contains a
large weight/cardiovascular workout room, aerobics room, and a full
size pool.
The southern three story part of the building is primarily
academic. The first floor contains the college's library and the
Barnes and Noble bookstore. The second mezzanine level contains the
library's main classroom and educational resource center (ERC.) The
college's art gallery is located on second floor in the lobby area.
The third floor is home to the college's communication department.
The Communications Department boasts a TV studio, as well as
several audio and video editing suites and a Macintosh computer
lab. There are also 5 regular classrooms on this level. The
college's radio station, WSKB, is in the newly constructed part of
the third floor. The basement of the library contains the student
government association offices, the main representative body for
students on campus.
The building recently had a major renovation project that made it
fully handicap accessible.
Wilson Hall
Wilson Hall is one of the campus's largest academic buildings and
was built in 1970. It was originally intended to be the science
hall, and for the most part it still is today. The south part of
the building is four stories while the north wing is only three.
The south corridor of the first floor is home to the Psychology
Department as well as the college's Information Technology
department. The IT Department has two PC computer labs that are
also located in this area as well as the college's technology
helpdesk which offers technical support to students, faculty, and
staff. There are also several classrooms used mostly by the
psychology department on the first floor. Just to the north, the
central open area on the first floor contains a large cafeteria
lounge and a cash eatery known as Quixote's which features Mexican
food like Tacos and Nachos, but also has a full grill menu for both
Breakfast and Lunch/Dinner. Also in this area is the campus card
office and a student IT service window. Originally the Quixote's
area was a small parking garage. The north part of the first floor
contains some faculty offices, mostly for the Geography department,
and the Wilson Auditoriums which are lecture hall style classrooms;
the only lecture halls at Westfield State. There are three separate
lecture halls, but the walls separating them can be opened creating
one very large room. The second floor is home to the biology
department and contains many labs and classrooms used by the
various biology classes. Also on the second floor are the Trio
Student Support Services program office, the Disability Services
office, and the Urban Education program office. The Disability
Services department provides academic counseling for students with
disabilities and also operates the Tutoring Center which offers
tutoring services for all students. The third floor of Wilson is
home to the Physical Science and Philosophy departments and like
the second floor contains many labs and classrooms used by the
various physical science courses. Finally, the fourth floor is home
to the Economics and Management, Computer Science, and Mathematics
departments and several classrooms used by these departments. There
is also a classroom computer lab on this floor used mostly by the
computer science department, and a study lab managed by computer
science interns.
Parenzo Hall
Parenzo Hall is the oldest academic building on the current campus
and one of the campus's original buildings along with Scanlon Hall
and the original power plant. Originally it contained all of the
college's classrooms and offices; today it contains a number of
classrooms, academic departments, and administrative departments as
well as the campus's old gym.The basement contains several
workshops used by the art department as well as the offices for
some of the college's administrative services. The college's main
receiving area and supply room are located in the basement as well
as the college's mail room. The copy center, which provides photo
copy services to faculty and staff, is also located in the
basement. The Media and Technical services department is located at
the far south end of the basement. This department is responsible
for the college's Audio Visual equipment as well as the campus's
phone system. Finally, the basement contains a few faculty offices,
mostly of the English department. The ground floor contains the
Parenzo Gym which is the campus's original gymnasium as well as the
outside entrance to the building's elevator. Up until the
construction of the Woodward Center, the Parenzo Gym was home to
the Athletics department. Today, the Parenzo Gym is used mostly for
intramural sports. The first floor of Parenzo Hall has several
classrooms and an Apple computer lab. It is also home to the Art,
Political Science, and Sociology and Social Work Departments. There
are also a few faculty offices for the English department. Also,
this floor is the home to the offices of Academic Affairs, Academic
Advising, Marketing, International Studies, and the Center for
Teacher Education and Research. Finally the first floor contains
Dever Auditorium, the college's main auditorium where a variety of
productions are put on throughout the year. The second floor of
Parenzo Hall contains mostly classrooms, but is also home to the
Education department and the office of Facilities and Operations.
Also the Honors Program, Reading and Writing Center, and Faculty
Center are located on this floor.
Mod Hall
Mod hall is an office building completed in October 2009. It is a
modular building and is only temporary until a new academic
building is built.
Notable alumni
, Providence
and Albany
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